Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Vatican’s foreign minister, called for promotion of understanding and tolerance among religions in the conflict-ridden Middle East. “The encouragement of a culture of peace and peaceful coexistence between religions in the Middle East should be seriously pursued and Vatican has always supported such peaceful religious coexistence,” Gallagher said in a meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad Javad Zarif, in Tehran on Wednesday. Zarif singled out extremism as the main source of conflicts gripping not only the region but the whole world. “The world’s problem today is extremism, which is not confined to a specific region,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA. The region has been embroiled in several ongoing bloody civil wars, including in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, which have drawn in both regional and non-regional powers, and provided a breeding ground for extremist and terrorist groups such as the notorious Islamic State terrorist group.
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